Wages are a major issue in the strike, with the union pointing to the $7.5 billion in profits BHP Billiton made last year. The union rejected the company’s May 30 “last and final offer” at talks with the union on May 30, charging the bosses with refusing to compromise on the issues and retracting provisions it had agreed to earlier. More information on the Ekati strike can be found on the union’s websites www.unw.ca and www.psacnorth.com.
—Beverly Bernardo
Coal miners in Australia
fight for union contract
SINGLETON, Australia—Coal miners at Xstrata’s United Collieries in the Hunter Valley, 140 miles north of Sydney, walked out June 1 in a seven-day protest strike. The job action by some 100 miners, members of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, is part of a fight to win a new union agreement. It followed a week of rolling stoppages involving 24-hour walkouts by different shifts and overtime bans.
Terry Fernie, the lodge secretary (union delegate), said that the company had stalled negotiations on the agreement until after the federal government’s new antiunion legislation came into effect at the end of March. These laws have made it much more difficult to take legal strike action. Fernie explained that the union conducted the required secret ballot, with more than 90 percent voting in favor of taking action.
The mine lease has an expected life of only another six years. Pickets said they want to secure their entitlements —injury pay, severance pay, and long service leaves—because under the new laws there would be no guarantee that the current agreement would continue.
The company has offered wage raises averaging 2 percent per year, less than the rate of inflation. “Last year the company made a $112 million profit from this operation, but they still have nothing for the fellas,” said Fernie.
—Linda Harris